Islamabad (GNP): Senior defence and intelligence officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey are set to travel to Tehran, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) announced on Monday. The visit comes as Israel approaches a parliamentary election overshadowed by warnings of a wider confrontation with Iran.
SNSC Deputy Secretary Ali Bagheri said the trip is part of efforts to put the idea of “endogenous security” in West Asia into practice. He named Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who serves as Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff, and Turkish Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin as the officials who will attend a joint meeting in the Iranian capital.
Munir had already pointed to a meeting with the SNSC Secretary during his encounter with Lieutenant General Mohsen Rezaei. No date for the joint meeting was given in the announcement.
The diplomatic push arrives at a tense moment in Israel. Israeli media reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir clashed over a proposed military operation that could trigger fighting with Iran.
According to the report, Zamir asked for a detailed discussion and signed legal authorisation from political leaders before carrying out their instructions. The nature of the operation was not disclosed.
The report also cited military concerns that political leaders could exploit tensions with Iran for electoral gain before the October 27 vote. A security official warned that the operation could escalate quickly into a confrontation with Iran and lead to a miscalculation at a sensitive time. Political officials rejected the claim that the Iran issue was being used for electoral purposes.
Netanyahu denied any dispute with Zamir in an interview later on Sunday. In the same interview, he said he had instructed the Mossad and the military to work towards toppling Iran’s government, and claimed Iran had resumed its nuclear programme. The report did not establish whether the undisclosed operation was linked to those instructions.
Earlier that day, Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv with a warning about Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Opposition leaders Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan accused him of spreading fear and panic before the vote.
Washington has added its voice to the campaign. US President Donald Trump reaffirmed his support for Netanyahu on Sunday, urged Israelis to re-elect him and called on Israel to press on with its military campaign against Iran until it is completed.
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Trump pointed to his October 18 endorsement letter, which praised Netanyahu as a “Warrior Prime Minister”. He cited the US military operation against Iran, named Operation Epic Fury, as an example of their cooperation.
Trump also claimed that Iran had lost its navy and air force, that its inflation had reached 301%, that a naval blockade had stopped its oil exports, and that two levels of its leadership had been eliminated. These figures and claims are his own and were not independently verified.
The Tehran meeting and the Israeli election campaign are unfolding at the same time, and developments on both fronts will shape how tensions with Iran evolve in the coming days.
Trump said, “We have to finish the job that we started.”
Managing Editor at Global News Pakistan (GNP), with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Riphah International University, graduated with a Gold Medal. Reach out at sabahtareengnp@gmail.com
